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4-6 LED Color Changing Platform

I'm looking for a simple circuit that changes color just like those
platforms that you see laser crystals displayed on. If anybody knows a
good link or has there own cicuit I would greatly appretiate it.
 
I'm looking for a simple circuit that changes color just like those
platforms that you see laser crystals displayed on. If anybody knows a
good link or has there own cicuit I would greatly appretiate it.

Well, you could try a fader circuit driving two different colored LEDs
out of phase to get various colors of the combination of the two.

Something like shown at the link. Replace the incadescent lamps with
LEDs and a resistor.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/page6.htm#eyes2.gif
 
eh, there's got to be something cheaper, i like your thinking but i
want more than two colors and it seems like i should be able to build
something like this for under a couple of dollars. building this
circuit for each light would get expensive, four 555's four 2n3055.
Besides, i'm looking for something small and portable, a twelve volt
battery would either die to quickly or be to big and heavy, and if i
lowered the voltage i would have to change the resistor and capacitor
values which i don't know how to do. Thanks for the idea anyways, it
was a good one.
 
F

Frank Bemelman

Jan 1, 1970
0
I'm looking for a simple circuit that changes color just like those
platforms that you see laser crystals displayed on. If anybody knows a
good link or has there own cicuit I would greatly appretiate it.

There are 'mood leds' that just do this. You only need a resistor
to limit the current a bit.

Or else, a PIC of course.
 
All of your idea's have been good but not exactly what I'm looking for,
last night I was trying to come up with a circuit that would do what I
wanted it to. I have the principle down but not the knowledge. I was
thinking of using high storage capacitors connected in parralell with
an LED and in series with a resistor to slow charging time to about two
seconds, causing a red LED to phase in. Once the red LED reached full
brightness I would use a yet to be determined circuit to phase in a
yellow LED as the red one dimmed. Then once the yellow LED reached full
brightness I would use the yet to be determined circuit fade in a blue
LED as yellow faded out. Then it would shift from blue to red. If I can
get this circuit to work it should shift through the full color
spectrum at a relaxing four seconds. Any body got any good ideas?
 
Z

Zak

Jan 1, 1970
0
All of your idea's have been good but not exactly what I'm looking for,
last night I was trying to come up with a circuit that would do what I
wanted it to. I have the principle down but not the knowledge. I was
thinking of using high storage capacitors connected in parralell with
an LED and in series with a resistor to slow charging time to about two
seconds, causing a red LED to phase in. Once the red LED reached full
brightness I would use a yet to be determined circuit to phase in a
yellow LED as the red one dimmed. Then once the yellow LED reached full
brightness I would use the yet to be determined circuit fade in a blue
LED as yellow faded out. Then it would shift from blue to red. If I can
get this circuit to work it should shift through the full color
spectrum at a relaxing four seconds. Any body got any good ideas?

To make all colors, you want a red, a green and a blue led. Red and
green make yellow.

You want to adjust the current through each to change the intensity.

To make this smooth needs quite some circuitry. However, changing the
intensity of each one independently would be an option. Or use a
constant current source and some drive mechanism to favor two of the 3
leds - the constant current will keep intensity constant but it will
cycle through all mixes including white and white tints.


Thomas
 
It doesn't use any 555s. It's the circuit below that
called "automatic 12 volt lamp dimmer"
It uses one LM324 (quad op-amp), a few resistors and
2 small transistors. Probably costs less than $2 and
produces 3 colors from 2 LEDs. If you can work out
a 90 degree phase shift from one of the outputs,
you can drive another 2 LEDs and they will all be
separated 90 degrees.

-Bill
 
Sounds like those mood leds are my best option

Commercial products of this sort use a micro PWMing three LEDs (or a
tricolor RGB LED, which is nothing more than three LEDs in one body).
The LED is the most expensive part of the circuit.

You can build this for probably under $1.00, not counting the LED at
home, use an Atmel ATTiny11 micro ($0.54), three series
current-limiting resistors, and three 'AAA' cells.

A tricolor LED is going to be expensive though, e.g. Digi-Key
67-1829-ND is $7.26. Using individual LEDs will be cheaper but the blue
LED is going to set you back a bit of cash.
 
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